Sorghum timorense

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Family Poaceae

Taxonomy: Sorghum timorense (Kunth) Buse

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)

Andropogon tropicus var. timorensis Kunth (nomenclatural synonym)
Sarga timorense (Kunth) Spangler (nomenclatural synonym)
Sorghum australiense E.D.Garber & L.A.Snyder (taxonomic synonym)
Sorghum brevicallosum E.D.Garber (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NT eFlora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: Crowley_2007 (2), GrassBase_2014 (6), Hall_1981 (6), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kew_2019_6 (1), Metcalfe_2020_2 (19), Munroe_2019 (2), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (1), Nano_2011 (2), Osborne_2014 (1), Simpson_2021 (1), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Stephens_2021 (2), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 28 traits from 61 records in 18 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): andromonoecious (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 4 mm (2-6 mm) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
fruit_type (categorical): caryopsis (4) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006; WAH_2023_2]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 10125 mm2 (10125-10125 mm2) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_length (numerical): 450 mm (300-600 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_width (numerical): 22.5 mm (5-70 mm) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c4 (3) [sources: Munroe_2019; Osborne_2014]
plant_growth_form (categorical): graminoid (3); herb (1); tussock (3) [sources: Hall_1981; Metcalfe_2020_2; NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): therophyte (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
life_history (categorical): annual (5) [sources: Hall_1981; NTH_2022; Simpson_2021; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): caespitose (1) [sources: NTH_2022]
root_structure (categorical): non_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): wind (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): anemochory (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
flowering_time (categorical): nnyyyynnnnnn (1); nyyyyyynynnn (1) [sources: Stephens_2021]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: Metcalfe_2020_2]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (2) [sources: Crowley_2007; Nano_2011]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 8.82 mg/g (4.83-12.8 mg/g) [sources: Hall_1981]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 0.98 mg/g (0.76-1.2 mg/g) [sources: Hall_1981]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 4.59 mg (4.59-4.59 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 2.43 m (0.3-4 m) [sources: GrassBase_2014; Metcalfe_2020_2; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Metcalfe_2020_2	16	19	D. Metcalfe. “Unpublished data: Traits of Poaceae spp, CSIRO”. 2020.
GrassBase_2014	3	6	W. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, and K. H. &. H. Williamson. GrassBase - The online world grass flora. 2006. url: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
Hall_1981	4	6	T. J. Hall. “The nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of some pasture species in the Dichanthium-Eulalia Grasslands of North-West Queensland.”. The Rangeland Journal 3.1 (1981), pp. 67-73. doi: 10.1071/rj9810067.
NTH_2022	4	4	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_2006	4	4	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_2	2	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Crowley_2007	2	2	G. Crowley, M. Gardener, and M. Marrinan. Tropical savannas fire response database. 2007. url: [www.landmanager.org.au](www.landmanager.org.au).
Munroe_2019	1	2	S. E. M. Munroe, F. A. McInerney, J. Andrae, N. Welti, G. R. Guerin, E. Leitch, T. Hall, S. Szarvas, R. Atkins, S. Caddy-Retalic, and B. Sparrow. “The Photosynthetic Pathways of Plant Species Surveyed in Australia's National Terrestrial Monitoring Network”. Scientific Data 8 (2021), p. 97. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00877-z.
Nano_2011	2	2	C. E. M. Nano and P. J. Clarke. “How do drought and fire influence the patterns of resprouting in Australian deserts?”. Plant Ecology 212 (2011), pp. 2095-2110. doi: 10.1007/s11258-011-9988-x.
Stephens_2021	1	2	R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_6	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_2023	1	1	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
Osborne_2014	1	1	C. Osborne, A. Salomaa, T. Kluyver, V. Visser, E. Kellogg, O. Morrone, M. Vorontsova, W. Clayton, and D. Simpson. “A global database of C4 photosynthesis in grasses”. New Phytologist 204 (2014), pp. 441-446. doi: 10.1111/nph.12942.
Simpson_2021	1	1	K. J. Simpson, E. C. Jardine, S. Archibald, E. J. Forrestel, C. E. R. Lehmann, G. H. Thomas, and C. P. Osborne. “Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders”. New Phytologist 230 (2021), pp. 832-844. doi: 10.1111/nph.17069.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.